"It's a great plan for all of us to come together to make this happen," said Towns, 26, a local bank employee and a member of Rockford Hip Hop Congress.

She was referring to the Transform Rockford effort spearheaded by a group of businessmen and civic officials to turn Rockford from what Forbes calls a miserable city into an enviable one. Thursday's meeting at the Coronado Performing Arts Center was the group's first public meeting aimed at engaging the public.

Tom Gendron, chairman and CEO of Woodward Inc. who is leading the effort, said he is "shocked by the level of dysfunctional behavior in the community. There is a negative vibe in the community, and I can feel it."

Gendron, who lives in Colorado where Woodward is based, has dozens of family members who live in the area. And Woodward is building a $300 million factory in Loves Park to make airplane parts. He and a handful of local businessmen have pledged more than $3 million to get the Transform Rockford effort going.

Gendron said it could take 20 years to turn Rockford and the region around. "But we can make a lot of progress early on," he said.

More than a dozen businessmen and women, those who work for nonprofits and others stood on the stage and pointed out Rockford's problems, including that:

- A fourth of income in the city comes from government programs.

- Twenty-nine percent of youth in Rockford live in poverty.

- The violent crime rate was 251 percent higher than the national average in 2011.

"As bad as this is, don't despair," said Mike Schablaske, a former Woodward employee who is executive director of Transform Rockford. "There is a process."

Various committees have been established to move things forward, and attendees were asked to sign up after the meeting to work on them.

Gendron said the process will be "messy." Some have likened it to making sausage, he said. "It's not pretty to watch, but it's good in the end."

The next meeting will be Dec. 14 at Ellis Elementary School at a time to be determined. The purpose of that meeting is to share the attributes of successful communities and compare them with Rockford. The aim: to develop strategies to be like them.

Rudy Valdez, an engineer with United Technologies Aerospace Systems, said from the stage that diverse perspectives need to be heard in the Transform Rockford effort.